Men charged in massive email breach

Los Angeles – Three men have been charged over an email breach that has been referred to as the largest in history. As reported by WebProNews, according to an unsealed indictment, the United States Justice Department has charged two Vietnamese citizens who allegedly hacked a minimum of eight email service providers, and gained access to more than a billion email addresses.

The men, 28-year-old Viet Quoc Nguyen and 25-year-old Giang Hoang Vu, stole personal information from the hacked emails. The third man charged, Canadian David-Manuel Santos Da Silva, allegedly aided one of the men in laundering money made from spamming the email users.

Assistant Attorney General Caldwell is quoted in the report as stating of the data breach, “These men — operating from Vietnam, the Netherlands, and Canada — are accused of carrying out the largest data breach of names and email addresses in the history of the Internet.”

The acts are said to have taken place between 2009 and 2012. Caldwell is further quoted as stating, “The defendants allegedly made millions of dollars by stealing over a billion email addresses from email service providers. This case again demonstrates the resolve of the Department of Justice to bring accused cyber hackers from overseas to face justice in the United States.”